X-ray micro- fluorescence, diffraction and absorption spectroscopy for local structure investigation of a radioactive zinc ferrite deposit

X-ray micro- fluorescence (μXRF), diffraction (μXRD) and absorption spectroscopy (μXAS) techniques have been used to investigate the micro-crystalline and chemical structure of a radioactive zinc ferrite corrosion deposit phase formed on a zirconium dioxide substrate. Micro- fluorescence provides structural information based on the elemental distribution analysis, μXRD allows the determination of lattice parameters of crystalline compounds while μXAS yields data related to the atomic environment, such as coordination number and the distances to the nearest neighbours. The μXAS and the μXRD results are compared including a discussion of precision and accuracy of both techniques.